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Last night I had the displeasure of watching Richard E. Grant and his The History of Safari programme on ABC. Well what does one say when the vitriol fills their mouth? I mean how can any thinking person who respects life enjoy seeing any animal killed for sport? Whether it is historical footage or not, seeing a black rhino, a highly endangered animal, downed in black and white film just fills me with rage.

I’m no vegetarian (except when my gall bladder demanded it) I eat meat, like any omnivorous animal, like a lion or leopard eats meat I understand that animals eating others is part of the way of life. Sure our overconsumption is another issue that we need to address as is our massive population. But the killing of magnificent animals like rhinos, leopards, lions, elephants and hippos for sport because they were vermin just sicken me.

Worse still there are psychopathic jerks who still want to go out, get a living animal in their sights and end its life, then admire their kill. I mean at what point does this count as sport: ride a bike, sure; hit a ball, fine ; shoot at a target, OK. But killing another living thing isn’t sport. Now don’t mention culling animals, that is a whole other argument; massive issues there too. But I can’t help thinking that going out killing animals for pleasure and the “thrill” of the hunt is just one step short of a person killing others for pleasure.

Some will say they are only animals, we are part of the animal world and that argument just plays into the outdated idea that the world is ours to use as we wish. That has got us into a whole lot of environmental issues and seen us wipe out some beautiful creatures, in the name of progress.

I f someone kills a person for pleasure we rightly say they are disturbed and wrong, they are rightly stopped and punished. But in some parts of the world the killing of animals for the joy of it is OK. All I can say if you think it is OK to go out and take another creatures life as a sporting thrill you need to take a long hard look at yourself. No one should deliberately go out to take life for a sport. You are the vermin if you do that.